Expert: Roland Finston - 10/11/2011

Question
Daughters car had overheating issues, constantly adding water.
Replaced thermostat, hardwired cooling fan, changed radiator cap.
That didn't fix it so we replaced the water pump. The car now won't start, it backfires and won't fire but it is getting gas and trying to fire. I am thinking timing belt although we did not move any pulleys while the timing belt was off. I would appreciate any advice or hints or how to's on this one! Thanks!

Answer
Hi Tony.
Is this the 1.6L or 2.0L(SOHC/DOHC?) engine. I can check into the details of what may have gone wrong if I know the engine.
Have you removed the timing belt cover to see where the cam sprocket(s) mark is/are located when you have the crank at TDC? That would tell you if the valve timing slipped which can always happen when putting the timing belt back on. Did you follow a manual that detailed the procedure for the job?
Have you checked for engine fault codes using the ignition key:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that switching in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains "on", to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to be sure of an accurate/repeatable set of flash counts. Then tell me the counts in order of appearance. The last sets of counts will be 5 in each which means "end of readout". The other counts may tell us something to explain the no start.
I should be able to give you some suggestions once I have a better idea about the answer to these questions.
Roland